Two's A Crowd
by Hillsberry
Summary: Rochelle, Coach, Nick, and Ellis are just trying to get by like they usually do. In their travels they come across a town that's eerily vacant and discover something awfully surprising. Will this discovery change the group for the better or the worst? Please Read and Review! Thank you!
1. Quiet Towns Are Too Good To Be True

"This is awesome!" Ellis exclaimed loudly, pumping his fists in the air. He had shoved his gun into his backpack and didn't hesitate in the slightest to be loud and rambunctious. "Ellis, sweety, please be careful!" Rochelle called to him, seeming to cringe a bit at his obnoxious carelessness. Ellis didn't seemed to pay her warning any heed.

They had been traveling for a while bogged by zombie after zombie when they happened upon a small town. Thinking there might be a safe house somewhere to stay and rest, the group ventured into the quiet town.. Only to find out it was actually as quiet as it seemed. They had barely seen hide or hair of any infected. What few they did see only required one of the survivors to take it out.

"Hey, overalls, think fast!"

Nick had tucked away his gun too, using his now free hands to collect up some small rocks off the ground. He chucked one at the younger man's feet. Ellis jumped just in time not to get struck, laughing almost childishly with Nick chuckling along with him. The two made a sort of game of it in a matter of minutes. "Those two are going to get us killed," Coach said seriously at all the noise they were making, but grinned a bit as he watched the spectacle.

"Come on, guys. Really?" Rochelle groaned a bit, but they didn't seem too intent on stopping any time soon. The two continued despite her protests, and Coach even joined in after a bit giving Ellis 'scores' for his jumps as they made their way down the ghostly empty streets.

Rochelle attempted to stay alert while the others goofed off, but she couldn't help but snicker as Ellis tripped up a bit when he jumped and made a goofy face when he actually managed to stick the landing. "Oooo," Coach said in a low voice, shaking his head, "Safe! Two and a half!"

"He got a two and a half for that?! I call bullshit!" Nick complained, throwing more Ellis' way before he could fully recover himself. "Biased ref! Overalls is cheating!" Ellis and Coach laughed, the former jumping as best he could to avoid the bitter storm of rocks being thrown his way. Rochelle shook her head at the three and let a little laugh out herself.

Nick and Ellis shortly got into a friendly argument over how many points Ellis really got when the older of the two ran out of rocks to throw. Rochelle rolled her eyes as she walked past them, going on ahead. After traveling with Nick and Ellis for so long she knew it was entirely pointless to wait around for them to finish arguing. They'd get moving when the others did.

Coach, on the other hand, was watching the two of them with an amused smile. He was admiring his handiwork (getting the two of them to bicker- though, honestly, that wasn't a very hard feat to accomplish) when a faint noise reached his ears and he held up a hand as he tried to listen.

"Hey- Wait- Shh. You hear that?" He asked in a quiet voice, trying to get the others to quiet down too.

Ellis and Nick both shut their mouths in sync with an almost audible click. Rochelle immediately stopped in her tracks. Her ears felt as though they were prickling as she strained to hear what Coach seemed to be hearing. It wasn't wise to ignore another survivor when they say they hear something. It could be the line between life or death in certain instances. But no matter how much the others strained, they couldn't pinpoint exactly what they were keeping an ear out for.

They stood in complete silence for nearly a minute, Ellis looked about ready to ask what they were listening for, when they all finally heard it. It was faint and distant, but not terribly distant though. The muffled sound of sobbing reached their ears.

"Witch!" came a hiss.

Rochelle wasn't sure which one of the two said it, but Ellis and Nick both frantically got their guns out, looking around cautiously.

"You think it's walking..?" Nick murmured, sweeping his gun along the area. Rochelle turned and ran back, rejoining the group so she didn't stick out as a single target.

Coach shook his head at Nick's question. "No, it doesn't sound like it's moving," He said calmly. Since he had been the first one to initially hear the crying, the othesr believed him and relaxed a little bit.

"Where do you think it's coming from?" Ellis asked. Coach pursed his lips and looked around carefully, listening. Ellis and the other two watched carefully as he finally turned a bit to the left. "Somewhere over there," He said, jutting his gun out in the direction he was facing, "In one of the buildings probably."

"We should go kill it."

"Are you crazy?" Rochelle exclaimed, looking at Ellis, "We should AVOID it!"

"It's not a walking witch, Ellis. If we carefully move around it we should be fine," Coach said to him, looking equally surprised at the young man's proposition.

"It's day time. It could start walking any minute," Ellis told the skeptical two, "I'd rather track it down and take it by surprise then have it start walking and take us by surprise."

"...Overalls has a point," Nick said after a long paused of contemplation, "I'm in." Ellis grinned and went over so he was next to Nick. Both of them faced the other two, looking at them expectantly.

"You've got to be kidding me," Rochelle said in disbelief, "A witch, of all things, guys, we can't- Not you too!" Coach had walked over to Ellis and Nick halfway through her protests, looking a bit regretful as he did.

"It would be bad if we were surprise attacked by a witch," Coach told Rochelle with a slight shrug, seeming to have weighed the options. "You're all insane! One of us could DIE!" Rochelle exclaimed angrily, but followed the other three when they started stalking towards the noise. She made sure to give every one of them an extremely disappointed glare and made sure they saw it too. A witch was something you didn't want to fuck around with. However, majority ruled in this case.

They carefully crept alongside a small yellow house sitting just on the street side. The paint was chipping off the outside and the inside looked trashed like every other house they had seen since this epidemic started. The crying got closer as they went around back to the fenced in yard, but surprisingly it wasn't coming from inside the home.

The small house had a small closet-sized shed that looked ready to collapse on the edge of the dying lawn. One lone infected was shrieking and banging on the door of the shed, slowly splintering the wood under it's fists. It wasn't uncommon the see the infected attempting to attack one another, but this common one would stand no chance if it could actually reach the witch crying inside the shed.

Ellis, having been the one that suggested the whole thing and was the quickest to draw out his machete, carefully snuck up on the occupied zombie. A gunshot would have certainly startled the witch and the whole 'jump before being jumped' concept would have been totally moot. The second he was within grabbing-range, Ellis latched his hand onto the top of the infected's head and yanked it back. He swung his machete around and slashed at it's neck. He nearly lobbed the thing's head off in one fell swoop.

The mechanic made a face pretty close to the silly one he had made earlier, looking back at the others to see if they had saw what he did. Nick was gaping in surprise and Coach was trying not to laugh at Ellis's reaction to his own actions. Rochelle shuddered a bit and insisted that the young man put it down. The zombie's head, still clutched in his hand, was barely attached to it's body by a unimaginably thin strip of flesh. After a couple more hushed requests he complied and then turned to the door.

Sticking his machete back in his bag, Ellis grabbed his shotgun, lightly placing a hand on the shed door. The crying, no doubt, came from inside the shed. The rest of the group immediately tensed the second he placed his hand on the door.

"We can still leave… It's in a shed, it won't bother us," Rochelle hissed to the others, still completely against the idea. Ellis glanced back at the others, making sure they were ready, before taking a deep breath and shoving the door with all his might, slamming his body into it to give an extra push. The door gave in instantly and Ellis stumbled in. There was a loud shriek the second the shed was intruded and the three survivors outside lifted their guns to fire- but didn't. They didn't want to hit Ellis.

They waited for him to bolt back out of the shed, shooting his shotgun at an enraged witch chasing after him, but it was very delayed. More delayed than it should have been. Long seconds dragged by, each of them shaking in anticipation, when something finally happened.

"DON'T shoot!" Ellis exclaimed at the others in a warning, stumbling out of the shed frantically, "Don't shoot!"

"What the fuck, Ellis!" Nick snapped, so on edge he nearly shot the younger man right in the head. It was extremely hard not to shoot when someone is telling you not to. "Is the witch in there?" Coach asked in confusion, still braced for the special infected to come barreling out.

"NO," Ellis said hurriedly, waving his hand at them, "Lower your guns!" Coach and Nick didn't budge, looking very agitated and confused, but Rochelle slowly lowered her's.

"Ellis- What is it?" She asked, slowly beginning to approach the shed. The mechanic nearly looked in shock, throwing quick glances from them to the inside of the shed.

"Holy shit, holy shit, hooooolyyy shiiiit," Ellis gaped almost incoherently, slowly dropping his gun and locking his gaze back in the shed, "It's a kid."


	2. Little Girls Can Be Scary

Ellis had been so ready to fight a witch that nearly mowing over a little girl almost gave him something close to a heart attack. When he broke in, she screamed and he froze. He was just as shocked and scared to see her as she had been to see him. It took a lot just for Ellis to compose himself enough to tell the others to not shoot at the shed, dropping his own gun quickly to show he meant no harm.

He paced around outside in shock while Rochelle looked into the shed, looking equally surprised. Coach and Nick stayed almost completely still in their spots.

"It… It's a little girl," Rochelle gasped, slowly dropping her own gun quickly. Cowering at the far end of the shed was the small shaking form of the child. She was curled into herself, knees to her chest and arms wrapped around her head, to shield herself from danger. Quiet sobs drifted out from her protected head, body shaking slightly. Normally seeing a kid wouldn't be such an appalling thing, but this had been the first kid any of the survivors had probably seen since the incident started.

Coach tilted his head a bit and slowly approached the other two. He took one good look in the shed and simply said, "Yeah, that's a kid all right."

"Bullshit," Nick said, lowering his gun in denial at the others, "Any kids should be dead by now! That's impossible- she must be infected." He tried to insist, but when he walked over he gaped disbelievingly at the seemingly normal child, "Holy fucking shit."

"Hey, watch your language!" Ellis butted in, giving Nick a good whack on the shoulder. "The kid can hear you!"

"What? You said 'shit' too, Einstein!" Nick snapped back, giving Ellis a light shove.

"I didn't say the 'f-word'! That's the worst one you can blurt out in front of a kid!"

"Oh, you're real mature-"

"SHH!" Rochelle hissed loudly at the two, giving them both looks. Nick scoffed as he held his hands up and backed up a few steps while Ellis shut up entirely. The female survivor turned back to the shed and slowly inched inside once the other two were quiet. She moved carefully, holding up her own hands to show she was unarmed. When she got too close and the floor creaked under her foot the little girl gave another startled scream, attempting to back up further into the shed.

"It's OKAY!" Rochelle exclaimed quickly, trying to soothe the little girl by talking to her, "It's okay! We're not infected- See? We're people, like you. We just want to help. Are you okay? What's your name, sweetheart?" She slowly knelt as she spoke, so she'd be on level with the kid.

She seemed to be listening to the older woman's calm words of assurance. After a few minutes she slowly lowered her arms, poking her head up just enough to stare at Rochelle with tear-stained blue eyes.

"Marie…"

Rochelle couldn't help but smile at her soft, hesitant voice. "Hey there, Marie," She replied softly, "I'm Rochelle."

"I'm Ellis!"

Rochelle looked over to her right. Ellis was excitedly kneeling next to her. He had inched forward while she had been calming Marie down and now he was to her immediate right, grinning at her. "That's Coach over there," He continued happily, pointing to Coach and then Nick, "And that grumpy guy over there is Nick."

Coach gave Marie a small wave and Nick just gave a snort. Marie very hesitantly waved back to Coach and eyed Nick carefully. She still seemed a bit uneasy, but hardly looked terrified anymore. Ellis looked at Marie and then at Rochelle, his grin getting bigger, if possible, as if to happily exclaim again, 'Holly shit, it's actually a kid!'. This made the older woman roll her eyes with a small smile of her own before continuing to gently question the little girl.

"What are you doing here, Marie?" Rochelle asked her, "Are you alone?"

Marie glanced around the group of strangers carefully. They all seemed mostly nice and weren't infected, so she felt safe enough to answer. "I got separated from my group," She tried to explain to them, "My sister- I was traveling with my sister a-and two other people… A lot of the scary things came and I ran so they couldn't get me…"

"Away from your group, I suppose?" Nick interjected, narrowing his eyes at the little girl. Marie hesitated a moment at the sudden interruption then nodded.

"This is a fucking trap."

"NICK!" Ellis and Rochelle exclaimed nearly at the same time for different reasons.

"NO- Think about it!" Nick snapped back at them, "A _little girl_ just so happens to get separated from her group around the area _we_ happen to be in? No way. This is a fucking trap. This is a trap and her 'group' is probably going to jump out any minute to kill us then loot our corpses for our-"

"Can I have a word with you?" Rochelle exclaimed when Marie began to look upset at the accusation, standing up and stomping over to Nick, "OUTSIDE the shed?"

"I believe this would be better as a group conversation," Coach added, not looking too happy himself as he crossed his arms. Marie was looking down at the floor, sniffling a little as her eyes began to water with tears again. Nick scowled a little and went to object, but Ellis piped up.

"Hey, what about me?" The mechanic asked, looking up at the group from his spot on the shed's wood floor.

"Uh," Rochelle paused a moment, her anger faltering a bit at the sudden question, "Um, how about.. you keep Marie company, Ellis sweetie?" Ellis looked at Rochelle a moment, grinning once again as he began to scoot closer to Marie. "Alright, I'm on the job!" He assured the young woman with an almost childish thumbs up.

"We'll be just a minute," Rochelle assured the two, grabbing Nick by the sleeve and forcefully yanking him out of the shed. Coach followed after the two carefully, leaving the little girl and the mechanic in the shed alone.

"...Grown ups, right?" Ellis asked jokingly, gently nudging Marie on the arm, "Don't you listen to Nick, He's a paranoid jerk sometimes."

"Aren't… Aren't you a grown up too?" Marie asked in confusion, slowly wiping her new tears away.

"Well, sort of… They're MORE grown up than I am. I'm only 23 years old. How old are you, Marie?"

"I-I'm 8 years old.."

"Shit man- You know, it's been ages since I've seen a kid," Ellis said in surprise, "And you're only 8 years old? You're a brave little girl, you know that? Living through something like this… Some people four times older than you can't even handle this kind of stuff."

"My big sister keeps me safe," Marie said immediately with enough enthusiasm to bring a smile to the older survivor's face.

"Your big sister must be a brave girl too," Ellis commented praisingly, "How old is your big sister? 14? 15?"

"She's going to be 21 next week, actually."

"Hey, she's almost my age!" The mechanic said in quaint surprise, "She good with a gun?" Marie nodded a bit and Ellis gave a low whistle. "She must be a wonder to keep you and herself safe like that. You two are very lucky to have each other, I can tell you that. I miss my family like hell."

"Chris and Markus help keep me safe too." Marie explained hesitantly, "Me and my sister met them when… this started and we decided to stick together. Markus is really nice and friendly, but Chris… He's really tough and good with guns, but he's really, really mean… My sister and him argue a lot…"

"Is he 'Nick mean'?" Ellis asked, trying to get a basis for comparison.

"Worse."

"Ouch. That must be tough." Ellis said, cringing a bit as he tried to imagine being stuck in a situation like that, "Survival comes before manners though, I suppose. How old is Chris?"

"...25?" Marie said uncertainly, but adding, "Markus is 32!"

"Sounds like you talk to Markus more than you do Chris," Ellis commented with a snicker.

"Chris sometimes carries me on his back because it's safer for me that way when we're traveling, but he never talks to me when he does. When he does talk he's… mean. Really mean. When we find some place safe for the night he usually goes off by himself and sharpens his knives or cleans his guns," Marie said uncomfortably, "But Markus sits with me and my sister and tells me stories before I go to bed. He reminds me of my mom sometimes, he's really fussy about how me and my sister are feeling and if we're all right."

The little girl giggled a bit when she admitted that and the older survivor joined in. "Other than Chris, it sounds like you got yourself a nice little group," Ellis told her reassuringly, ruffling her already messy brown hair, "Don't worry. When the rest of my group gets back in here, Nick'll get a slap on the wrist and we'll take you to go find your sister, all right? You'll be back together in no time."

Marie's smile wavered slightly. She ran her small fingers through her hair and looked down at her worn-out dress.

"I hope so…"


	3. Don't Talk To Strangers

After a mostly civil debate between Rochelle, Coach, and Nick it was decided, much to Ellis' joy, that they were going to look for Marie's group, but if they couldn't find them anywhere (even in the next few towns over) they would integrate the little girl into their own group and take care of her. Ellis told the others what he had learned from Marie about her group and the little girl was hardly against talking about anything they wanted to know. Nick was the one (and only) most adamantly against the idea of keep the 'suspicious little girl' and questioned her every chance he got.

"So, how did you get separated from your group, exactly?" He asked as they prowled around to look for any signs of the other survivors.

"I told you; We were going through here and Chris wasn't carrying me because it LOOKED safe- He carries sometimes because-"

"You're virtually useless at defending yourself because you're a little squirt- I know about your piggyback rides, Overalls told me about them."

Ellis elbowed Nick hard in the back. Nick happily obliged in elbowing him back. Rochelle and Coach had split off from the two males and the girl to cover more ground. Meaning neither of them were there to deprived either of the men from causing friendly pain to one another.

"Well, while we were walking around a bunch of scary people came out. They were hiding, I guess… Anyways, a whole bunch of them, lots and lots, came running out and a few started chasing after me," Marie continued on without skipping a beat, "My sister told me to run, so, I did and now here I am!"

"Uh-huh, yeah," Nick said slowly still seeming very unconvinced. He paused to look Marie up and down and then look at Ellis. "Why're you two holding hands?"

Marie looked down at the ground, shuffling her feet through the dirt on the sidewalk. The little girl and the mechanic were walking side by side. Ellis was holding his gun in one hand so he could lace his much bigger hand with Marie's small dainty fingers. When this was finally questioned a hour into their search for Marie's group the younger man simply shrugged.

"I got scared after hearing what happened to Marie and her group. So, I asked this brave little lady to hold my hand," Ellis informed Nick in a very matter of fact tone. Nick rolled his eyes at the statement and Marie smiled slightly in relief. She was a little too embarrassed to admit she wanted to hold someone's hand to feel safe even though she was only 8 years old.

"Remind me to call you Pansy instead of Overalls."

Ellis made a face when Nick turned and went to trudge on ahead. He didn't make it more than a foot before Rochelle and Coach came jogging down the street. "We haven't seen ANY other survivors in the area, sweetheart," Rochelle solemnly told the little girl when they were all back together. "Are you sure this is the spot where you got split up?"

Marie looked instantly heartbroken at the news. "You haven't seen anything?" She asked, her voice cracking a bit. Coach frowned and shook his head.

"They abandoned you, quite frankly, if this group even existed in the first place." Nick informed her bluntly after absorbing the information from the other members of his own group. Nick, Ellis, and Marie hadn't seen hair nor hide of anyone either. Marie immediately gave a whine at the crude news delivered to her and almost instantly began to cry.

"Nick!" Rochelle exclaimed in exasperation more than anger, touching Marie's shoulder to try and assure her, "Your group didn't abandon you, Marie- Hey, from what Ellis told us about your sister- She would NEVER leave you, okay? It's alright, please, don't cry. We'll find them, sweetheart."

Marie sniffled, wiping tears and snot from her face with her free hand. "B-But this was the place," She sputtered between hiccuped sobs, "Th-This is where w-we got separated…! W-Why wouldn't they be h-here u-unless…" Rochelle bit her bottom lip, looking to Nick almost expectantly to fix the mess he caused.

The area where Marie had gotten separated from her group definitely had signs of heavy dispute. There were dead infected covering most of the street and there was even a good handful still live and hanging around. They were only common infected that simply rushed the five of them, easily taken out by Rochelle and Nick.

Most of the dead ones were common infected too with the exception of one Boomer and a Hunter. They were all shot, but not another soul was found in the area. The heaviness of Nick's words almost felt like the truth. Especially after the group had searched a wide span of the area for at least an hour and a half at the most.

"Are you hungry?" Ellis' voice cut through the silence as he squeezed the little girl's hand. No one else was bothering to speak up to distract Marie, so the mechanic naturally stepped in.

"I-I… I.. I- don't know," She stammered out, still wiping at tears. Ellis knelt down next to her, pointing down the street a little ways. "There's a department store just down the street there, see it? Maybe, if it hasn't been ransacked yet, there might be some candy or something left in there," He told her optimistically, standing back up and gently pulling her along, "Come on, let's go see if we can find anything, all right? Then we'll go right back to looking."

"Good idea," Rochelle blurted out immediately, turning to Coach, "Can you run down there with them? Just to keep an eye out if anything goes wrong…" Coach held up a hand to stop the young woman.

"He had me at candy, Ro. I got this," He said with a smile to assure Rochelle, patting Marie gently on the head. "Come on, kids, let's go." Ellis jokingly complained as the three headed towards store. The older man's laughs and the mechanic's gripping could be heard until they disappeared into the rundown shop. Nick watched them go, shaking his head with a ghost of a smirk on his face.

"You don't think it's true do you?"

Nick paused a moment to let the question soak in before looking at Rochelle. "Don't think what is true?" He asked in slight confusion.

"That Marie's group abandoned her!" Rochelle hissed unhappily.

"Oh, so NOW you agree with me once everyone is GONE?" The other replied in mock surprise.

"The way Ellis said she talked about her sister- I didn't think- How could they just leave her for dead like that?"

"Uh, hm, well, she's a child that literally has no idea how to protect herself other than to run…" Nick mused sarcastically, "It's like the equivalent of walking around with a vegetable on a rabbit farm. If I was them, I would have done the same thing. She's an accident waiting to happen."

"I know you would! That's why I'm concerned!" Rochelle groaned, "You saw how upset she was at you just saying they might have left her! If they actually abandoned her she'd be devastated… The only thing carrying her through this damn apocalypse was her sister. The poor kid probably doesn't even know if her parents are alive."

"Her and everyone one else managing to drag themselves alive through this," Nick said simply, "You know where I stand on keeping Marie if they left her."

"I understand where you're coming from with that… I-I feel the same way actually, but we can't just.." Rochelle sat down on the curb, putting her head in her hands. Nick casted glances at the other survivor before plopping down next to her.

"I don't want to abandon a little girl, Nick. That would be like murdering her.." She said in confliction. "I… I wish we never found her, but then..."

"Don't get all stressed over this. We'll figure something out," He sighed a bit, rubbing his temples, "Eventually…"

"Do you see anything, Marie?"

"..No.. Not yet," Marie mumbled back, eyes trained on the ground for any signs of packaged food.

The three survivors scoured the mostly demolished store together. The front window had been smashed and the door ripped off it's hinges. Inside there was rubble, wrappers, broken glass, and lots of knocked over shelves. The brief scavenge had managed to get Marie to stop crying, but she was still extremely downtrodden over the reality Nick had essentially made her face.

For the most part the store seemed entirely barren. Lucky enough for Coach, Ellis, and Marie, the store was also barren of any infected leaving them to a nice safe search. Marie and Coach weaved between the shelves while Ellis hopped the counter.

"Nothing back here," Ellis announced as he rummaged about the compartments behind the counter. "Nothing but more wrappers and old moldy fliers." He poked through the fliers, grinning a bit and holding one up, "Hey, a couple of these are for the Midnight Riders, Coach!"

"That's nice and all, Ellis, but you came here promising food and so far we haven't found squat," Coach puffed a bit, attempting to try and lift a half knocked over shelf, "There might be some in this little space under these shelves, but they're too heavy for me to lift on my own… Mind helping out a little?"

Ellis pouted dejectedly, putting the decomposing piece of paper on the counter. He was about to hop the counter to help when Marie walked over to the shelf instead. "I got it," She said in a quiet voice, kneeling down and crawling in the tiny space between the shelves.

"Oh, hey, would you look at that," Coach grinned a bit, kneeling down so he could look into the little space she crawled into, "I forgot we had someone small with us for once! Be careful in there. There's lots of glass on the floor, we don't need you getting a cut or something."

"I will."

Ellis smiled at the two of them, going back to investigating behind the counter. The only other things to poke at behind there was the register and a door that probably led to some sort of back room. The mechanic had looted enough empty stores with his group to understand the general layout of them.

The register was fruitless. Even though money virtually valued nothing now, Ellis would have liked to pocket some for a keepsake in case money wasn't used anymore when the apocalypse was over. Ellis closed the register's drawer back up and turned to the door.

"Hey, I'm going to poke around back," He called to the other two, "See if there might be anything in storage." Coach turned to the younger man to answer him, but Marie had given a sudden squeal and crawled out from under the shelf.

"Success!" She exclaimed, a smile on her face once again as she held up a dusty, but still wrapped candy bar. "Marie, you angel!" Coach praised her happily, taking the candy from her so he could open it. The two of them were splitting the bar as Ellis shook his head with a smile and went over to the door.

The mechanic tried the door. The lock on it seemed to be busted, so it opened right up. Busted doors weren't too uncommon nowadays, this didn't stop Ellis from entering the back room. The door creaked on it's rusted hinges as he entered the room. There were about four rows of shelves in the slightly spacious enclosure and the walls were lined with more.

The shelves held open cardboard boxes that probably held nothing but dust. Ellis didn't have particular interest in searching every ripped open box for non-existent supplies when he noticed a very interesting looking metal desk in the far back corner of the room.

"Now that's what I'm talking about," Ellis mumbled happily to himself, going right over to the desk. He grinned as he yanked on the drawers and none of them opened. Usually that would be a bad thing, but locked drawers meant someone hasn't opened them yet. That meant stuff and stuff was one's best friend in the apocalypse.

Something cold pressed against the back of his neck just as he reached to grab his machete and pry the drawers open.

"Move and I'll fucking shoot the vertebrae out of your neck."

Ellis froze, eyes wide in alarm. He choked up a moment in panic, unable to make anything audible at first. "A-All right," He finally forced out in a shaky voice, "O-Okay…"

"Put your hands up."

Ellis just nodded very slowly lifting his hands to level with his head. There was a pause of silence, which Ellis had taken a deep breath during, before there was a tugging at the mechanic's backpack. Who ever it was holding him at gunpoint was unzipping his bag.

"L-Listen… It's… tough out there, I know.. s-so just take.. whatever you want," Ellis said carefully, slowly composing himself as he tried to reason with the stranger, "J-Just don't shoot me.. okay? I won't fight you.." The other person didn't answer. They held the gun firmly to the back of his neck as they continued to rummage through his bag.

Attempting to stay calm, and praying this person meant no real harm, Ellis tried to just focus on careful breathing and being patient. He took deep breaths through his nose and slowly exhaled through his mouth. The attacker gave a grunt of frustration, unzipping another one of the pockets on his bag.

(Double-chapter today! (Even though it's like 2 a.m.) I had written the first initial chapter of this fic before I had went on vacation in Washington D.C. only to come back…. And have it get more views than I could have imagined.

I really appreciate people reading this. I'm an aspiring writer and practice makes perfect. (Or at least some form of it) What better way to practice than to write fanfiction, right?

So, I hope people are enjoying this so far and I can't thank you guys enough for even reading this. Thank you so much! I can assure you this story has a very interesting plot unfolding ahead.)


	4. Not-so-Long Awaited Reunion

"Do you see anything else, Marie?" Coach asked, crumpling up the wrapper of their now devoured treasure. Sharing the candy bar between the two had only satisfied the survivors for a brief moment. Marie had returned to crawling around the dusty floor under the toppled over shelves, but wasn't as successful this time around.

"That was the only one," She said solemnly, shimmying out from between the floor and the rotting wood. "There's just a bunch of opened, smelly packages in there…"

"That's a shame," Coach mumbled in disappointment, giving the young girl a reassuring pat on the head when she stood straight again. "Don't let that get to you."

Marie looked up at the man from under his kind touch, "Do you think Ellis found something in that back room?" The older survivor glanced over at the door behind the counter that the mechanic had disappeared through. "You know what?" He said in over exaggerated realization, bending down so he was at a better level with the child, "I bet he did!"

"You do?" The little girl asked, instantly looking hopeful again. Her face lit up again at the idea of more food- whether it was candy or not.

"I do, and you wanna know what? I bet he's hogging whatever he found right now."

"All to himself?"

"Uh-huh."

"He wouldn't!"

"Oh, he would," Coach said with a grin, "He's awful at sharing. You should go teach him a lesson." He gave her another pat on the back, gently pushing the girl towards the room Ellis went into.

Marie seemed to hesitate a moment before giving a cheeky grin that often crossed little kid's faces- Exactly the reaction Coach was hoping for. He wanted to do what he could to get the poor kid's mind off her current situation. She enthusiastically nodded at the idea.

Marie snuck over to the counter, slipping around the door just as the older survivor gave a grunt and slowly stood back up. "I'm getting too old to babysit kids," He muttered to himself, rubbing his sore back. If they didn't find a safe house, let alone Marie's group, Coach wasn't going to let the group hear the end of how exhausted he was. They had been traveling way too long without a break.

Marie slipped through the door with hardly a squeak out of it. She scanned the room, looking for the tall, peppy mechanic. "Ellis?" She whispered into the seemingly empty room, half hoping he'd answer and half hoping he wouldn't hear her. She slinked across the floor as slow as a cat on prowl, looking between the shelves. "Ellis?"

Her feet paused a moment when she heard a faint rustling further back in the room. Her cheeky little grinned returned and she whispered happily to herself, "Aha!" Carefully walking around the shelves, she could see two figures at the end of the room, in front of a desk.

Wait. Two?

Marie froze in spot, staring wide-eyed at the two near the desk. One of them was unmistakably Ellis, she could hear him mumbling something quietly to the other person behind him. "...If you just take what you want… don't hurt anybody…" Marie though she could make out the older man saying. The other person was holding a gun, their back facing the little girl. "Just shut up would you," The other person hissed, effectively getting the mechanic to shut his mouth for once with a jab of their gun.

The little girl's hands clenched, her eyes welling up with tears as she charged the person rummaging through Ellis' bag and threw her tiny arms around their waist. The person immediately sputtered in surprise at the sudden weight thrown against them, dropping their gun. As soon as the weapon hit the floor Ellis whipped around in equal surprise, no longer threatened to face one way without it in the assaulter's hand. He locked his eyes on Marie and froze a moment in panic, quickly realizing he had a very brief window of time to assure his own and now Marie's safety.

He certainly wasn't ungrateful for her help. It gave him a perfect opportunity to turn the tables on the stranger. Scrambling for the gun, he quickly told the younger survivor, "Marie! Run for the door! I'll-"

"Alyssa!"

"-try to… Wait," Ellis paused in confusion, looking over at the girl, "What?"

Marie hadn't attacked the stranger, in fact, she was hugging them very tightly, tears streaming from her eyes. Ellis got a better look at 'Alyssa', realization instantly dawning on him now that the panic was gone. What were the odds of running into other people in this area?

Unless they were from Marie's group.

The older girl in Marie's arms stood stock still, staring down at the little girl with a look of pure shock. "Marie…?" She whispered almost numbly at first, lifting a hand to touch the other's soft cheek. "...Oh my god," She gasped in disbelief when she realized that the child clinging to her was a very real Marie. "Oh my god, Marie…!"

Alyssa collapsed on the floor next to Marie, pulling her to her chest like she'd never let the girl go. Marie hugged back with equal vigor resting her head on her shoulder and looking up at Ellis. "It's Alyssa!" She said happily through the tears, almost in disbelief herself, "It's Alyssa- My sister- She's here! This is her! I knew she wouldn't leave me!"

"Your sister tried to shoot me," Ellis said a bit uneasily, but tried to sound genuinely happy for the little girl. He was truly happy for the reunion, but was a bit put off from almost being mugged.

"Yeah, that's her!" Marie said as if it wasn't a problem. "Great," The mechanic replied, slowly picking up the gun on the floor as an extra precaution. As he carefully stuck the pistol in his back pocket Alyssa pulled back from her sister.

"I thought you were dead!" She shuddered out, squeezing Marie's shoulders at the mere thought, "I looked every where for you..!"

"It's okay! I got away from the scary people!" Marie explained to the older girl, putting her own hands over Alyssa's, "I ran really fast and hid! Then these nice people found me and decided to help me!" She looked up at Ellis and her sister's gaze shortly followed.

"Heya, I'm Ellis," Ellis said awkwardly, waving his hand slightly, "I'm the guy you tried to mug.."

"Ah, right.." Alyssa said with an equal awkward tone in her voice, "I uh… I wouldn't have took your stuff if I knew you were helping my sister."

"Oh, no. I'm sure you had a perfectly good reason to try and take my things at gunpoint."

"Well, you probably weren't just going to hand it over, I needed-"

"Alyssa?" Marie piped up, slowly lifting up her hand to look at it, "...Are you okay…?" Both of the older survivors looked at her raised hand. It was coated in blood. Ellis' face paled a bit and moved closer to the two to see what was wrong.

"Holy shit!" Ellis gaped, pointing at Alyssa's side, "You're bleeding!"

"Thank you for that brilliant deduction," Alyssa huffed in irritation, clutching her side as if she had just remembered the wound, "Bandages. I needed bandages. I was jumped by a hunter while I was looking for my sister, so I came in here to see if they had any medical supplies…"

"...And there wasn't any.. Then I showed up," The mechanic said, remembering he had seen the dead hunter on the street outside, "Well, if that's what you wanted you could've just asked!- Rochelle doesn't let me hold any medical stuff because I told her about this one time when me and my buddy Keith-"

"Ellis!" Marie exclaimed in distress.

"Right, right," Ellis sputtered, cutting his explanation short, "Anyways, the rest of my group is outside- Let's fix you up before you bleed out." He held out a hand to help the girl up. Alyssa stared at his hand a moment before grabbing it with her free hand.


	5. Drawing Attention

"So, You're Marie's infamous sister," Rochelle said pleasantly as she approached the other female survivor, "It's Alyssa, right?" Alyssa looked up at Rochelle as Ellis lead her over to the the two. Marie and him had managed to get Alyssa out of the back room and onto the counter in the rundown store.

Though admitting she needed help, Alyssa didn't seem as keen as her little sister was in trusting the other group of survivors. She kept a serious eye on each and every one of them. What they were doing, who they were talking to, how they were talking to them. She didn't even answer Rochelle, simply pressing her lips in a thin line and staring at the other woman.

"Ellis told me you were hurt," Rochelle continued despite the lack of response, gesturing to Ellis and then held up the first aid kit, "Mind if I take a look?"

"Yes," Alyssa said quite blatantly.

"It'll only take me a minute. I promise. I just want to help." Rochelle insisted, attempting to reason kindly with the other. Ellis looked at Rochelle and then at Alyssa, trying to assist in convincing the stubborn girl, "Would you be more comfortable if I did it? You already know I'm harmless."

"Like I want you shoving your hands up my shirt," Alyssa replied bluntly, making the mechanic sputter in response, "Just give me the first aid kit. I can take care of myself."

"We're willing to share our limited medical supplies because you're Marie's older sister, but in order for us to feel comfortable helping you we need to know you trust us like we trust you," Rochelle told her, nodding to Marie, "Like your sweet sister trusts us." Alyssa immediately frowned at the survivor dragging her sister into the argument, glancing down at her.

"They're nice, I swear," Marie told her sister earnestly. "Please, let them help you." The older sibling scowled, attempting to resist more, but gave in after only a few minutes. "Fine," She hissed in aggravation, peeling her blood soaked shirt away from her wounded side. Rochelle smiled at her, opening up the first aid kit.

"Thank you, Alyssa."

"Just hurry up and patch it up," Alyssa huffed, "It hurts like a bitch."

"Language," Marie piped up, earning an angry glance from her sister. The older sibling bit back a snappy reply, not wanting to upset Marie after finally finding her. Ellis smirked a little, leaning next to Rochelle and whispering, "Good job using Marie as a guilt card."

Rochelle simply smirked back as she pulled out some disinfectant, "This girl was willing to go out into a zombie infested town by herself to find her sister- It was too obvious that'd she'd bend to that little girl's will." She paused a moment, looking to Alyssa and asking, "Wait- Where IS the rest of your group?"

Alyssa's face twisted into a scowl at the mentioning. "They didn't want to get off their asses, so I went alone." Marie looked hurt at the statement, hands dropping to her sides.

"N-Neither of them… wanted to come save me…?"

"No-" Alyssa sputtered, pinching the bridge of her nose with her free hand, "Markus wanted to come find you, but Chris insisted that he 'didn't want to look for a dead kid' and declared that he wasn't leaving the safe house we found. Stuck up fucker-"

"Language!"

"That's only one of them though," Rochelle commented after Marie's interruption, "Couldn't that guy- Chris?- stay in the safe house while you in the other one looked for Marie?"

"If Markus had come with me to get Marie, Chris would've taken off. He would've left and all three of us would've been screwed because Chris is the only one with sufficient survival skills."

"He would have just left you guys?" Ellis asked in surprise.

"Yes- FUCK," Alyssa yelped in pain, attempting to muffle herself by pressing a hand to her lips. "Sorry," Rochelle apologized as she gently dabbed her side with a disinfectant soaked cloth, "I need to clean the wound." The female survivor tried hard not to jerk from the cloth, but found it hard not to squirm away.

"I can't clean it if you keep moving like that!" Rochelle huffed at Alyssa's constant wriggling.

"Well, sorry, it feels like you're STABBING me! Why do you have to clean it? Just wrap it up!"

"If you don't clean it then it'll get infected! Plus I can't even see the wound with all the blood to begin with," Rochelle insisted, looking at Ellis, "Do you think you can hold her still?"

"I-I can try," Ellis said with a nod. He stood himself in front of Alyssa, firmly grabbing ahold of her upper arms and locking her in place. "How's that?" Alyssa glared daggers at Ellis, attempting to jerk herself out of his grip, but had little to no success. The young man was stronger than he looked. She attempted to pry his hands off while Rochelle replied, "Perfect."

Since Ellis was now holding Alyssa still, Rochelle decided it'd be best to mop up as much blood as she could and clean the wound quickly. "Brace yourself," She warned the other girl before completely pressing the cloth against the open wound. Alyssa let out a strangled scream, her whole side feeling as though it was on fire as soon as the disinfectant came fully in contact with her skin.

Ellis bit back a shout of his own as the other survivor's nails dug into his hands and wrists, squeezing to the point of breaking skin. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Rochelle said hurriedly, lifting the cloth a moment and pressing it back on, "It's almost clean- It's almost over. You're doing great, Alyssa."

The older woman wanted to compliment Ellis as well, but felt too rushed to blurt one out. Despite Alyssa's attempts to thrash about and jerk away, the mechanic was managing to hold her firmly in place. Marie had also helped too, wrapping her arms around her sister's knees and hugging them to her chest. "You're okay!" She whimpered out encouragingly, Alyssa agonized screams shaking her up a bit.

"What the HELL are you guys doing in there!?" Rochelle stopped pressing down on the wound when she heard Nick shout from his post outside. When the burning pain stopped Alyssa's head lolled forward. She almost toppled off the counter and onto the floor if it wasn't for Ellis holding her upright.

"H-Hey, you okay?" He asked, giving the girl a gentle shake. His shaking only managed a pained groan out of her.

"I'm disinfecting Alyssa's wounds!" Rochelle yelled back to Nick, standing up, "Is there a problem or something?"

"Yeah, do you realize how much attention you're getting?" The question was followed by a few shots and the tell tale noise of infected screeching. "Shit," Rochelle hissed, not realizing how the slightest noise in such a quiet town would attract infected, "How many are out there?"

"A fuckton!"

"Wonderful! Hold them off as best you can!" Rochelle yelled back, looking back at the others, "We need to go- Like right now. Come on."

"What about Alyssa!?" Marie squeaked worriedly, looking up at her sister.

"We'll have to find a safer place to patch her up," Rochelle said, starting to quickly pack up the supplies she took out.

"But-" Marie had started up.

"If we don't leave now we'll get mobbed by infected and Alyssa might get hurt even more."

"Ro, she's pretty badly hurt," Ellis piped up for Marie, pushing up Alyssa's shirt a bit more to get a better look at her side. Rochelle returned to the injured survivor's side to see for herself.

The older woman cringed as she looked at the now clean wound. Alyssa had four long, deep gashes in her side from the Hunter's claws. Her skin was horribly split, the disinfectant bubbling up in the deep red crevices of the injuries.

"Shit," Rochelle gaped as she gently prodded the area around the wound, looking up at Alyssa, "You're going to need stitches."

"Y-You don't say…?" Alyssa choked out, still having a hard time keeping herself upright, "Thanks for shoving d-disinfectant RIGHT in my wounds…"

"I didn't know they were that deep," Rochelle admitted, feeling bad now, "There was so much blood…"

"That should have been a clue that it was really bad," The younger girl spat despite the pain she was in.

"All right, I'm sorry. You can bitch at me when we get some place safe," The other female survivor said, wracking her brain for a place where they could be safe enough to even give Alyssa stitches. "When we FIND some place safe…"

"That safe house," Alyssa hissed out. She released Ellis's arms to roll her shirt carefully back down over her wounds.

Rochelle's eyes popped and she hopped to her feet again, "You know how to get back to the one where the rest of your group is, don't you?" Alyssa managed a nod. "If I can stay conscious long enough I can tell you how to get there." She told the others.

"Yeah, but can you walk?"

Alyssa glanced at Rochelle when she asked the question and then looked at the floor. Ellis helped ease her off the counter... only to have her collapse to the ground. "No way," She grit out, clutching her side.

"I could carry her-" Ellis had started, but Rochelle cut him off as she rushed to the broken store window. "No! We need you to carry Marie!" She leaned out the window and shouted to Nick, "Nick! I need you to get in here and carry Marie's sister!"

Nick shot a couple very rabid looking that charged for Coach, whipping around to look back at Rochelle. "You've got to be kidding me!"

"NICK!"

"Augh, fine!" The con man exclaimed angrily, turning on his heel and rushing back to the store. Coach followed closely behind the other man, shooting any infected that attempted to follow them. Nick shoved his gun in Rochelle's arms and the female survivor quickly took up his job of shooting down infected.

"Where is she!?" Nick asked in aggravation as he stumbled into the store.

"Over here!" Ellis called back to him from his spot at the counter. The older man approached the three as Marie and Ellis tried to get Alyssa to her feet. Nick stopped in surprise next to them, surveying the other female survivor for the first time.

"Huh," He comment quaintly, "She's older than I expected her to be."

"What did you think I was twelve?" Alyssa scoffed at the other survivor, seeming to look him over as well.

"With how old your sister is? Yes."

"Can't this wait 'til we're somewhere safe?" Ellis cut in hurriedly, hefting Marie up into his arms. Nick gave a humored snort, turning to Alyssa so she could hop onto his back, "Aren't you being awfully serious, overalls."

"Alyssa is hurt really bad. I'd prefer not to stick around and have someone else get hurt too." Ellis told him, giving Alyssa a hand in getting onto the con man's back. She winced a bit when Nick adjusted her on his back, but the two were more than ready to get out of there.

"We got the girls!" Nick said to the other two survivors as he and Ellis rushed out of the store, "Where to!?"

"Ask Alyssa that!" Rochelle called back to him, nailing a Spitter in the head before it could shoot at the escaping survivors. Alyssa grit her teeth and lifted her hand, pointing off down the street.

"That way."


End file.
